Lucian Grange of Universal Music Creates Taskforce for Social Justice – Variety

As protests erupted over the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police across the United States last weekend, musicians and musicians have become significant on social media, calling for a “Tuesday blackout” where organizations would sit as demonstrations. Sources said Diversity Interscope Records and authorized firms are delaying the release of recordings by SmokePorp, MGK, CCK Lac, Dylan, Lil Mosey, Billy Raful, Jesse War and others as part of this initiative.

However, while some organizations announced grants and posted calls for action, their indicators had little to say on Tuesday about how the day could make a difference, instead of “reflecting” and “disconnecting and reconnecting from work.”

Lucian Grenage, head of Universal Music Group – which includes Republic, Capital, Interscope, DF Jam and many more labels – issued a memo to the company’s staff to plan a taskforce led by chief consultant Jeff Harleston, “to accelerate our inclusion and social justice. Effort in such cases.

In the memo, he details: “Jeff called on multiple qualified officers across the organization to review our current programs, identify gaps and shortcomings, update where our plan is outdated, propose new initiatives, and ensure these issues continue. Is calling to ensure we are at the top of our agenda. “

Read the full memo below:

Dear colleague,

This news last week is horrible. There is no other way to fix it.

First of all let me emphasize, there are resources available for you with professional advice for those who are understandably hurt by these events. Encourage anyone in need to take advantage of them.

This week, however, we saw the most painful realities of our society about race, justice and inequality – ruthlessly and ruthlessly brought to light in the harsh light of day. But no matter how shocked or sad or persuaded we may be, we simply cannot be discouraged. We must act. We all have a duty to change these realities, to help build a society that is much less unequal and fair.

For some, it starts with protesting the simple general constitutional right to be heard.

Clearly, we strongly support protest initiatives such as Black Out Tuesday and other valuable and heartfelt nonviolent protests. And, by “we” it’s not just UMG, our labels, UMPG and our other companies যার everyone will communicate about it in their own unique voices.

However, as we know, protest is just a beginning, not a solution. Real and constructive change – Long-term change requires constant focus and unwavering commitment over time.

Certainly, we are proud of our leadership and our efforts to improve ourselves. But that is just the beginning. We should do more and now is the time to do it – and to do it with an unprecedented sense of urgency. More importantly, we must not only commit ourselves to this week, but we must continue this commitment – in the months and years ahead without a period.

So here’s what we’re going to do.

I have appointed our General Counsel Jeff Harleston to lead a UMG taskforce to accelerate our efforts in the field of inclusion and social justice. Jeff calls on multiple qualified officers across the organization to review our current programs, identify gaps and shortcomings, update our plans where they are old, propose new initiatives, and ensure that these issues are at the top of our agenda.

Everything – raising our voices in Congress, providing additional staff education and support, enhancing our philanthropy, using the power of the amazingly vast catalog to impact change – will be on the table. The systematic nature of the problems is too complex to give up anything.

Jeff will start filling in the details for you next week.

We all have a lot to do. I urge each of you to seriously consider how you can help UMG become a better and more precise place to work, and how we can build our influence on culture into a more specific place in the world. There will be ample opportunities for everyone in the organization to get our artists and lyricists involved.

Music has always been the driving force behind the inspiration for social change. The voices of our artists and the songs of our lyricists have changed the world. And they will continue to do just that.

We will broaden those voices.

We will solve these problems.

Together.

Thank you again for what you are doing. Stay safe.

Sincerely,
Lucian